Managing access to user profile information via a distributed transaction database

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer-usable medium for generating a user behavior profile, comprising: monitoring user interactions between a user and an information handling system; converting the user interactions and the information about the user into electronic information representing the user interactions; generating a unique user behavior profile based upon the electronic information representing the user interactions and the information about the user; storing information relating to the unique user behavior profile within a user behavior profile repository; and, storing information referencing the unique user behavior profile in a user behavior blockchain.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to the field of computers andsimilar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in thisfield. Still more particularly, it relates to a method, system andcomputer-usable medium for managing blockchain access to user profileinformation.

Description of the Related Art

Users interact with physical, system, data, and services resources ofall kinds, as well as each other, on a daily basis. Each of theseinteractions, whether accidental or intended, poses some degree ofsecurity risk, depending on the behavior of the user. In particular, theactions of a formerly trusted user may become malicious as a result ofbeing subverted, compromised or radicalized due to any number ofinternal or external factors or stressors. For example, financialpressure, political idealism, irrational thoughts, or other influencesmay adversely affect a user's intent and/or behavior.

Various approaches to detecting such threats include performing userprofiling operations to infer the intent of a user's actions. Theresults of such profiling operations are often stored in a user profile,which is in turn may be used as a reference point to compare currentuser behavior to past activities. However, the information contained insuch a user profile poses a risk, as it could be utilized by a maliciousactor to impersonate the user for illicit purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for generatinga cyber behavior profile, comprising: monitoring user interactionsbetween a user and an information handling system; converting the userinteractions and the information about the user into electronicinformation representing the user interactions; generating a uniquecyber behavior profile based upon the electronic informationrepresenting the user interactions and the information about the user;storing information relating to the unique user behavior profile withina user behavior profile repository; and, storing information referencingthe unique cyber behavior profile in a cyber behavior blockchain.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the samereference number throughout the several figures designates a like orsimilar element.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary client computer in which the presentinvention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an edge device;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an endpoint agent;

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a security analytics system;

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a securityanalytics system;

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a blockchainaccess management system;

FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a cyberprofile implemented as ablockchain;

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a cyberprofile block in ablockchain;

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a transportable cyberprofile;

FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a blockchainaccess management system used for managing access to a transportablecyberprofile;

FIG. 11 is a generalized flowchart of the performance of cyberprofileelement generation operations;

FIGS. 12a and 12b are a generalized flowchart of the performance oftransportable cyberprofile generation operations; and

FIG. 13 is a generalized flowchart of the performance of transportablecyberprofile management operations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for managingblockchain access to user profile information. Certain aspects of theinvention include an appreciation that identity information associatedwith a user can be stored in a blockchain data structure familiar tothose of skill in the art. Certain aspects of the invention likewiseinclude an appreciation that such blockchain approaches, as typicallyimplemented, include encrypting the contents of the blockchain to ensuretheir confidentiality. Likewise, certain aspects of the inventioninclude an appreciation that given sufficient time and resources, theresults of such encryption can be decrypted.

Certain aspects of the invention likewise reflect an appreciation thatblockchains are typically implemented as a distributed transactiondatabase, and decryption of the contents of one transaction block of ablockchain is generally of little value. However, decrypting thecontents of a blockchain block containing a user's identity information,such as user identifiers and passwords, poses a potential securityliability. Likewise, the identity information may include certainpersonal information associated with a user.

Furthermore, certain aspects of the invention reflect an appreciationthat a user may wish for such personal information to be madeinaccessible, whether in part or in its entirety. Moreover, variousaspects of the invention reflect an appreciation that a user may wishfor certain personal information to be deleted or “forgotten.”Consequently, certain aspects of the invention reflect an appreciationthat while various blockchain approaches are advantageous in proving theauthenticity of a user, it may not be advisable for them to containcertain identity, behavior, or personal information associated with auser.

For the purposes of this disclosure, an information handling system mayinclude any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operableto compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate,switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, orutilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business,scientific, control, entertainment, or other purposes. For example, aninformation handling system may be a personal computer, a mobile devicesuch as a tablet or smartphone, a consumer electronic device, aconnected “smart device,” a network appliance, a network storage device,a network gateway device, a server or collection of servers or any othersuitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality,and price. The information handling system may include volatile and/ornon-volatile memory, and one or more processing resources such as acentral processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic.Additional components of the information handling system may include oneor more storage systems, one or more wired or wireless interfaces forcommunicating with other networked devices, external devices, andvarious input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, amicrophone, speakers, a track pad, a touchscreen and a display device(including a touch sensitive display device). The information handlingsystem may also include one or more buses operable to transmitcommunication between the various hardware components.

For the purposes of this disclosure, computer-readable media may includeany instrumentality or aggregation of instrumentalities that may retaindata and/or instructions for a period of time. Computer-readable mediamay include, without limitation, storage media such as a direct accessstorage device (e.g., a hard disk drive or solid state drive), asequential access storage device (e.g., a tape disk drive), opticalstorage device, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and/orflash memory; as well as communications media such as wires, opticalfibers, microwaves, radio waves, and other electromagnetic and/oroptical carriers; and/or any combination of the foregoing.

FIG. 1 is a generalized illustration of an information handling system100 that can be used to implement the system and method of the presentinvention. The information handling system 100 includes a processor(e.g., central processor unit or “CPU”) 102, input/output (I/O) devices104, such as a display, a keyboard, a mouse, and associated controllers,a storage system 106, and various other subsystems 108. In variousembodiments, the information handling system 100 also includes networkport 110 operable to connect to a network 140, which is likewiseaccessible by a service provider server 142. The information handlingsystem 100 likewise includes system memory 112, which is interconnectedto the foregoing via one or more buses 114. System memory 112 furtherincludes operating system (OS) 116 and in various embodiments may alsoinclude a blockchain access management system 118. In one embodiment,the information handling system 100 is able to download the blockchainaccess management system 118 from the service provider server 142. Inanother embodiment, the blockchain access management system 118 isprovided as a service from the service provider server 142.

In various embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118performs one or more operations for managing the use of a blockchain toaccess to a cyberprofile or other sensitive private information (SPI),described in greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, themanagement of blockchain access to a cyberprofile or other SPI improvesprocessor efficiency, and thus the efficiency of the informationhandling system 100, by automating the management of blockchain access.As will be appreciated, once the information handling system 100 isconfigured to manage blockchain access, the information handling system100 becomes a specialized computing device specifically configured tomanage blockchain access and is not a general purpose computing device.Moreover, the implementation of the blockchain access management system118 on the information handling system 100 improves the functionality ofthe information handling system 100 and provides a useful and concreteresult of managing blockchain access to cyberprofiles and other SPI.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an edge device implemented inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. As used herein, an edgedevice, such as the edge device 202 shown in FIG. 2, broadly refers to adevice providing an entry point into a network 140. Examples of suchedge devices 202 may include routers, routing switches, integratedaccess devices (IADs), multiplexers, wide-area network (WAN) accessdevices, and network security appliances. In certain embodiments, thenetwork 140 may be a private network (e.g., an enterprise network), asemi-public network (e.g., a service provider core network), or a publicnetwork (e.g., the Internet).

Skilled practitioners of the art will be aware that edge devices 202 areoften implemented as routers that provide authenticated access tofaster, more efficient backbone and core networks. Furthermore, currentindustry trends include making edge devices 202 more intelligent, whichallows core devices to operate at higher speed as they are not burdenedwith additional administrative overhead. Accordingly, such edge devices202 often include Quality of Service (QoS) and multi-service functionsto manage different types of traffic. Consequently, it is common todesign core networks with switches that use routing protocols such asOpen Shortest Path First (OSPF) or Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)for reliability and scalability. Such approaches allow edge devices 202to have redundant links to the core network, which not only providesimproved reliability, but enables enhanced, flexible, and scalablesecurity capabilities as well.

In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented toinclude a communications/services architecture 204, various pluggablecapabilities 212, a traffic router 210, and a pluggable hostingframework 208. In certain embodiments, the communications/servicesarchitecture 202 may be implemented to provide access to and fromvarious networks 140, cloud services 206, or a combination thereof. Incertain embodiments, the cloud services 206 may be provided by a cloudinfrastructure familiar to those of skill in the art. In certainembodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented to provide supportfor a variety of generic services, such as directory integration,logging interfaces, update services, and bidirectional risk/contextflows associated with various analytics. In certain embodiments, theedge device 202 may be implemented to provide temporal information,described in greater detail herein, associated with the provision ofsuch services.

In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented as ageneric device configured to host various network communications, dataprocessing, and security management capabilities. In certainembodiments, the pluggable hosting framework 208 may be implemented tohost such capabilities in the form of pluggable capabilities 212. Incertain embodiments, the pluggable capabilities 212 may includecapability ‘1’ 214 (e.g., basic firewall), capability ‘2’ 216 (e.g.,general web protection), capability ‘3’ 218 (e.g., data sanitization),and so forth through capability ‘n’ 220, which may include capabilitiesneeded for a particular operation, process, or requirement on anas-needed basis. In certain embodiments, such capabilities may includethe performance of operations associated with managing the use of ablockchain to access a cyberprofile, described in greater detail herein,or other sensitive private information (SPI), likewise described ingreater detail herein. In certain embodiments, such operations mayinclude the provision of associated temporal information (e.g., timestamps).

In certain embodiments, the pluggable capabilities 212 may be sourcedfrom various cloud services 206. In certain embodiments, the pluggablehosting framework 208 may be implemented to provide certain computingand communication infrastructure components, and foundationcapabilities, required by one or more of the pluggable capabilities 212.In certain embodiments, the pluggable hosting framework 208 may beimplemented to allow the pluggable capabilities 212 to be dynamicallyinvoked. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize that many suchembodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended tolimit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an endpoint agent implemented inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. As used herein, anendpoint agent 306 broadly refers to a software agent used incombination with an endpoint device 304 to establish a protectedendpoint 302. Skilled practitioners of the art will be familiar withsoftware agents, which are computer programs that perform actions onbehalf of a user or another program. In various approaches, a softwareagent may be autonomous or work together with another agent or a user.In certain of these approaches the software agent is implemented toautonomously decide if a particular action is appropriate for a givenevent, such as an observed user behavior.

An endpoint device 304, as likewise used herein, refers to aninformation processing system such as a personal computer, a laptopcomputer, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a mobile telephone, a digital camera, a video camera, or otherdevice that is capable of storing, processing and communicating data. Incertain embodiments, the communication of the data may take place inreal-time or near-real-time. As used herein, real-time broadly refers toprocessing and providing information within a time interval brief enoughto not be discernable by a user. As an example, a cellular phoneconversation may be used to communicate information in real-time, whilean instant message (IM) exchange may be used to communicate informationin near real-time. In certain embodiments, the communication of theinformation may take place asynchronously. For example, an email messagemay be stored on an endpoint device 304 when it is offline. In thisexample, the information may be communicated to its intended recipientonce the endpoint device 304 gains access to a network 140.

A protected endpoint 302, as likewise used herein, broadly refers to apolicy-based approach to network security that typically requiresendpoint devices 304 to comply with particular criteria before they aregranted access to network resources. As an example, a given endpointdevice 304 may be required to have a particular operating system (OS),or version thereof, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client, anti-virussoftware with current updates, and so forth. In certain embodiments, theprotected endpoint 302 may be implemented to perform operationsassociated with accessing user profile information via a blockchain, asdescribed in greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, theprotected endpoint 302 may be implemented to provide temporalinformation, such as timestamp information, associated with suchoperations.

In certain embodiments, accessing user profile information may be basedupon contextual information associated with a given user behavior. Asused herein, contextual information broadly refers to any information,directly or indirectly, individually or in combination, related to aparticular user behavior. In certain embodiments, user behavior mayinclude a user's physical behavior, cyber behavior, or a combinationthereof. As likewise used herein, physical behavior broadly refers toany user behavior occurring within a physical realm, such as speaking,gesturing, facial patterns or expressions, walking, geolocation and soforth. More particularly, physical behavior may include any actionenacted by a user that can be objectively observed, or indirectlyinferred, within a physical realm. In certain embodiments, the objectiveobservation, or indirect inference, of the physical behavior may beperformed electronically.

As an example, a user may attempt to use an electronic access card toenter a secured building at a certain time. In this example, the use ofthe access card to enter the building is the action and the reading ofthe access card makes the user's physical behaviorelectronically-observable. As another example, a first user mayphysically transfer a document to a second user, which is captured by avideo surveillance system. In this example, the physical transferal ofthe document from the first user to the second user is the action.Likewise, the video record of the transferal makes the first and seconduser's physical behavior electronically-observable. As used herein,electronically-observable user behavior broadly refers to any behaviorexhibited or enacted by a user that can be observed through the use ofan electronic device (e.g., an electronic sensor), a computing device orsystem (e.g., an endpoint device 304), computer instructions (e.g., asoftware application), or a combination thereof.

Cyber behavior, as used herein, broadly refers to any behavior occurringin cyberspace, whether enacted by an individual user, a group of users,or a system acting at the behest of an individual user, a group ofusers, or an entity. More particularly, cyber behavior may includephysical, social, or mental actions that can be objectively observed, orindirectly inferred, within cyberspace. As an example, a user may use anendpoint device 304 to access and browse a particular website on theInternet. In this example, the individual actions performed by the userto access and browse the website constitute a cyber behavior. As anotherexample, a user may use an endpoint device 304 to download a data filefrom a particular system at a particular point in time. In this example,the individual actions performed by the user to download the data file,and associated temporal information, such as a time-stamp associatedwith the download, constitute a cyber behavior. In these examples, theactions are enacted within cyberspace, in combination with associatedtemporal information, which makes them electronically-observable.

As likewise used herein, cyberspace broadly refers to a network 140environment capable of supporting communication between two or moreentities. In certain embodiments, the entity may be a user, an endpointdevice 304, or various resources, described in greater detail herein. Incertain embodiments, the entities may include various endpoint devices304 or resources operating at the behest of an entity, such as a user.In certain embodiments, the communication between the entities mayinclude audio, image, video, text, or binary data.

As described in greater detail herein, the contextual information mayinclude a user's authentication factors. Contextual information maylikewise include various user identity resolution factors, such aspersonal information associated with the user, the date/time/frequencyof various user behaviors, the user's location, the user's role orposition in an organization, their associated access rights, and certainuser gestures employed by the user in the enactment of a user behavior.Other contextual information may likewise include various userinteractions, whether the interactions are with an endpoint device 304,a network 140, a resource, or another user. In certain embodiments, userbehaviors, and their related contextual information, may be collected atparticular points of observation, and at particular points in time,described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented touniversally support a variety of operating systems, such as AppleMacintosh®, Microsoft Windows®, Linux®, Android® and so forth. Incertain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented tointeract with the endpoint device 304 through the use of low-level hooks312 at the OS level. It will be appreciated that the use of low-levelhooks 312 allows the endpoint agent 306 to subscribe to multiple eventsthrough a single hook. Consequently, multiple functionalities providedby the endpoint agent 306 can share a single data stream, using onlythose portions of the data stream they may individually need.Accordingly, system efficiency can be improved and operational overheadreduced.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented toprovide a common infrastructure for pluggable feature packs 308. Invarious embodiments, the pluggable feature packs 308 may provide certainsecurity management functionalities. Examples of such functionalitiesmay include various anti-virus and malware detection, data lossprotection (DLP), insider threat detection, and so forth. In certainembodiments, the security management functionalities may include one ormore functionalities associated with accessing user profile information,as described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, a particular pluggable feature pack 308 isinvoked as needed by the endpoint agent 306 to provide a givenfunctionality. In certain embodiments, individual features of aparticular pluggable feature pack 308 are invoked as needed. It will beappreciated that the ability to invoke individual features of apluggable feature pack 308, without necessarily invoking all suchfeatures, will likely improve the operational efficiency of the endpointagent 306 while simultaneously reducing operational overhead.Accordingly, the endpoint agent 306 can self-optimize in certainembodiments by using the common infrastructure and invoking only thosepluggable components that are applicable or needed for a given userbehavior.

In certain embodiments, the individual features of a pluggable featurepack 308 are invoked by the endpoint agent 306 according to theoccurrence of a particular user behavior. In certain embodiments, theindividual features of a pluggable feature pack 308 are invoked by theendpoint agent 306 according to the occurrence of a particular temporalevent, described in greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, theindividual features of a pluggable feature pack 308 are invoked by theendpoint agent 306 at a particular point in time. In these embodiments,the method by which a given user behavior, temporal event, or point intime is selected is a matter of design choice.

In certain embodiments, the individual features of a pluggable featurepack 308 may be invoked by the endpoint agent 306 according to thecontext of a particular user behavior. As an example, the context may bethe user enacting the user behavior, their associated riskclassification, which resource they may be requesting, the point in timethe user behavior is enacted, and so forth. In certain embodiments, thepluggable feature packs 308 may be sourced from various cloud services206. In certain embodiments, the pluggable feature packs 308 may bedynamically sourced from various cloud services 206 by the endpointagent 306 on an as-need basis.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented withadditional functionalities, such as event analytics 310. In certainembodiments, the event analytics 310 functionality may include analysisof various user behaviors, described in greater detail herein. Incertain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented with athin hypervisor 314, which can be run at Ring −1, thereby providingprotection for the endpoint agent 306 in the event of a breach. As usedherein, a thin hypervisor broadly refers to a simplified, OS-dependenthypervisor implemented to increase security. As likewise used herein,Ring −1 broadly refers to approaches allowing guest operating systems torun Ring 0 (i.e., kernel) operations without affecting other guests orthe host OS. Those of skill in the art will recognize that many suchembodiments and examples are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is notintended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a security analytics systemimplemented in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Incertain embodiments, the security analytics system shown in FIG. 4 maybe implemented to provide log storage, reporting, and analytics capableof performing streaming 406 and on-demand 408 analytics operations. Incertain embodiments, such operations may be associated with accessinguser profile information, as described in greater detail herein. Incertain embodiments, the security analytics system may be implemented toprovide a uniform platform for storing events and contextual informationassociated with various user behaviors and performing longitudinalanalytics.

As used herein, longitudinal analytics broadly refers to performinganalytics of user behaviors occurring over a particular period of time.As an example, a user may iteratively attempt to access certainproprietary information stored in various locations. In addition, theattempts may occur over a brief period of time. To continue the example,the fact that the information the user is attempting to access isproprietary, that it is stored in various locations, and the attemptsare occurring in a brief period of time, in combination, may indicatethe user behavior enacted by the user is suspicious. As another example,certain entity identifier information (e.g., a user name) associatedwith a user may change over time. In this example, the change in username, during a particular time period or at a particular point in time,may represent suspicious user behavior.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system may be implementedto be scalable. In certain embodiments, the security analytics systemmay be implemented in a centralized location, such as a corporate datacenter. In these embodiments, additional resources may be added to thesecurity analytics system as needs grow. In certain embodiments, thesecurity analytics system may be implemented as a distributed system. Inthese embodiments, the security analytics system may span multipleinformation processing systems. In certain embodiments, the securityanalytics system may be implemented in a cloud environment. In certainembodiments, the security analytics system may be implemented in avirtual machine (VM) environment. In such an embodiment, the VMenvironment may be configured to dynamically and seamlessly scale thesecurity analytics system as needed. Skilled practitioners of the artwill recognize that many such embodiments are possible. Accordingly, theforegoing is not intended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of theinvention.

In certain embodiments, an event collector 402 may be implemented tocollect event and contextual information, described in greater detailherein, associated with various user behaviors. In these embodiments,the method by which the event and contextual information collected bythe event collector 402 is selected to be collected is a matter ofdesign choice. In certain embodiments, the event and contextualinformation collected by the event collector 402 may be processed by anenrichment module 404 to generate enriched user behavior information. Incertain embodiments, the enrichment may include certain contextualinformation related to a particular user behavior. In certainembodiments, the enrichment may include certain temporal information,such as timestamp information, related to a particular user behavior.

In certain embodiments, enriched user behavior information may beprovided by the enrichment module 404 to a streaming 406 analyticsmodule. In turn, the streaming 406 analytics module may provide some orall of the enriched user behavior information to an on-demand 408analytics module. As used herein, streaming 406 analytics broadly refersto analytics performed in near real-time on enriched user behaviorinformation as it is received. Likewise, on-demand 408 analytics broadlyrefers herein to analytics performed, as it is requested, on enricheduser behavior information after it has been received.

In certain embodiments, the on-demand 408 analytics may be performed onenriched user behavior associated with a particular interval of, orpoint in, time. In certain embodiments, the streaming 406 or on-demand408 analytics may be performed on enriched user behavior associated witha particular user, group of users, one or more entities, or acombination thereof. In certain embodiments, the streaming 406 oron-demand 408 analytics may be performed on enriched user behaviorassociated with a particular resource, such as a facility, system,datastore, or service. Those of skill in the art will recognize thatmany such embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is notintended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, the results of various analytics operationsperformed by the streaming 406 or on-demand 408 analytics modules may beprovided to a storage Application Program Interface (API) 412. In turn,the storage API 412 may be implemented to provide access to variousdatastores ‘1’ 414 through ‘n’ 416, which in turn are used to store theresults of the analytics operations. In certain embodiments, thesecurity analytics system may be implemented with a logging andreporting front-end 410, which is used to receive the results ofanalytics operations performed by the streaming 406 analytics module. Incertain embodiments, the datastores ‘1’ 414 through ‘n’ 416 mayvariously include a datastore of entity identifiers, temporal events, ora combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system may be implementedto provide a risk management service 418. In certain embodiments, therisk management service 418 may be implemented to perform operationsassociated with accessing user profile information, as described ingreater detail herein. In certain embodiments, the risk managementservice 418 may be implemented to provide the results of variousanalytics operations performed by the streaming 406 or on-demand 408analytics modules. In certain embodiments, the risk management service418 may be implemented to use the storage API 412 to access variousenhanced cyber behavior and analytics information stored on thedatastores ‘1’ 414 through ‘n’ 416. Skilled practitioners of the artwill recognize that many such embodiments are possible. Accordingly, theforegoing is not intended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a securityanalytics system implemented in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 maybe implemented to perform operations associated accessing user profileinformation. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512may be implemented in combination with one or more endpoint agents 306,one or more edge devices 202, cloud services 206, a security analyticssystem 512, and a network 140 to perform such operations.

In certain embodiments, the network edge device 202 may be implementedin a bridge, a firewall, or a passive monitoring configuration. Incertain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented as softwarerunning on an information processing system. In certain embodiments, thenetwork edge device 202 may be implemented to provide integratedlogging, updating and control. In certain embodiments, the edge device202 may be implemented to receive network requests and context-sensitivecyber behavior information in the form of enriched cyber behaviorinformation 510, described in greater detail herein, from an endpointagent 306, likewise described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beimplemented as both a source and a sink of user behavior information. Incertain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beimplemented to serve requests for user/resource risk data. In certainembodiments, the edge device 202 and the endpoint agent 306,individually or in combination, may provide certain user behaviorinformation to the security analytics system 512 using either push orpull approaches familiar to skilled practitioners of the art.

As described in greater detail herein, the edge device 202 may beimplemented in certain embodiments to receive enriched user behaviorinformation 510 from the endpoint agent 306. It will be appreciated thatsuch enriched user behavior information 510 will likely not be availablefor provision to the edge device 202 when an endpoint device 304 is notimplemented for a corresponding endpoint agent 306. However, the lack ofsuch enriched user behavior information 510 may be accommodated invarious embodiments, albeit with reduced functionality associated withoperations associated accessing user profile information.

In certain embodiments, a given user behavior may be enriched by anassociated endpoint agent 306 attaching contextual information to arequest. In certain embodiments, the context is embedded within anetwork request, which is then provided as enriched user behaviorinformation 510. In certain embodiments, the contextual information maybe concatenated, or appended, to a request, which in turn may beprovided as enriched user behavior information 510. In theseembodiments, the enriched user behavior information 510 may be unpackedupon receipt and parsed to separate the request and its associatedcontextual information. Those of skill in the art will recognize thatone possible disadvantage of such an approach is that it may perturbcertain Intrusion Detection System and/or Intrusion Detection Prevention(IDS/IDP) systems implemented on a network 140.

In certain embodiments, new flow requests may be accompanied by acontextual information packet sent to the edge device 202. In theseembodiments, the new flow requests may be provided as enriched userbehavior information 510. In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306may also send updated contextual information to the edge device 202 onceit becomes available. As an example, an endpoint agent 306 may share alist of files that have been read by a current process at any point intime once the information has been collected. To continue the example,such a list of files may be used to determine which data the endpointagent 306 may be attempting to exfiltrate.

In certain embodiments, point analytics processes executing on the edgedevice 202 may request a particular service. As an example, risk scoreson a per-user basis may be requested. In certain embodiments, theservice may be requested from the security analytics system 512. Incertain embodiments, the service may be requested from various cloudservices 206.

In certain embodiments, contextual information associated with a userbehavior may be attached to various network service requests. In certainembodiments, the request may be wrapped and then handled by proxy. Incertain embodiments, a small packet of contextual information associatedwith a user behavior may be sent with a service request. In certainembodiments, service requests may be related to Domain Name Service(DNS), web browsing activity, email, and so forth, all of which areessentially requests for service by an endpoint device 304. In certainembodiments, such service requests may be associated with temporal eventinformation, described in greater detail herein. Consequently, suchrequests can be enriched by the addition of user behavior contextualinformation (e.g., UserAccount, interactive/automated, data-touched,temporal event information, etc.). Accordingly, the edge device 202 canthen use this information to manage the appropriate response tosubmitted requests. In certain embodiments, such requests may beassociated with managing the use of a blockchain to access acyberprofile or other sensitive private information (SPI).

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beimplemented in different operational configurations. In certainembodiments, the security analytics system 512 may be implemented byusing the endpoint agent 306. In certain embodiments, the securityanalytics system 512 may be implemented by using endpoint agent 306 incombination with the edge device 202. In certain embodiments, the cloudservices 206 may likewise be implemented for use by the endpoint agent306, the edge device 202, and the security analytics system 512,individually or in combination. In these embodiments, the securityanalytics system 512 may be primarily oriented to performing riskassessment operations related to user actions, program actions, dataaccesses, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, programactions may be treated as a proxy for the user.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented toupdate the security analytics system 512 with user behavior andassociated contextual information, thereby allowing an offload ofcertain analytics processing overhead. In certain embodiments, thisapproach allows for longitudinal risk scoring, which assesses riskassociated with certain user behavior during a particular interval oftime. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beimplemented to access risk scores associated with the same user account,but accrued on different endpoint devices 304. It will be appreciatedthat such an approach may prove advantageous when an adversary is“moving sideways” through a network environment, using differentendpoint devices 304 to collect information.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beprimarily oriented to applying risk mitigations in a way that maximizessecurity effort return-on-investment (ROI). In certain embodiments, thisapproach may be accomplished by providing additional contextual and userbehavior information associated with user requests. As an example, a webgateway may not concern itself with why a particular file is beingrequested by a certain entity at a particular point in time.Accordingly, if the file cannot be identified as malicious or harmless,there is no context available to determine how, or if, to proceed.

To extend the example, the edge device 202 and security analytics system512 may be coupled such that requests can be contextualized and fittedinto a framework that evaluates their associated risk. It will beappreciated that such an embodiment works well with web-based data lossprotection (DLP) approaches, as each transfer is no longer examined inisolation, but in the broader context of an identified user's actions,at a particular time, on the network 140.

As another example, the security analytics system 512 may be implementedto perform risk scoring processes to decide whether to block or allowunusual flows. It will be appreciated that such an approach is highlyapplicable to defending against point-of-sale (POS) malware, a breachtechnique that has become increasingly more common in recent years. Itwill likewise be appreciated that while various edge device 202implementations may not stop all such exfiltrations, they may be able tocomplicate the task for the attacker.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 512 may beprimarily oriented to maximally leverage contextual informationassociated with various user behaviors within the system. In certainembodiments, data flow tracking is performed by one or more endpointagents 306, which allows the quantity and type of information associatedwith particular hosts to be measured. In turn, this information may beused to determine how the edge device 202 handles requests. Bycontextualizing such user behavior on the network 140, the securityanalytics system 512 can provide intelligent protection, makingdecisions that make sense in the broader context of an organization'sactivities. It will be appreciated that one advantage to such anapproach is that information flowing through an organization, and thenetworks they employ, should be trackable, and substantial data breachespreventable. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize that manysuch embodiments and examples are possible. Accordingly, the foregoingis not intended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a blockchainaccess management system implemented in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention. In certain embodiments, the blockchain access managementsystem 118 may be implemented to manage blockchain access to userprofile information and other sensitive personal information (SPI). Incertain embodiments, the user profile information may be stored in theform of a user behavior profile.

As used herein, a user behavior profile broadly refers to a collectionof information that uniquely distinguishes a user and their associatedbehavior, whether the behavior occurs within a physical realm orcyberspace. In certain embodiments, such information may includepersonal information associated with the user, but generated by anentity other than the user. Examples of such personal information mayinclude government-issued identifiers, such as a Social Security Number(SSN), credit scores, financial transaction information, electronicmedical records (EMRs), insurance claim information, and so forth.

In certain embodiments, a user behavior profile may be implemented as amulti-faceted user behavior profile. Examples of facets can include, aparticular user authentication 604 or identity 628 factor. As anexample, one facet of a multi-faceted user behavior profile maycorrespond to the use of a particular biometric 606 user authenticationfactor 604, while another facet may correspond to a user's access rights616 to a certain system 654. In certain embodiments, a multi-faceteduser behavior profile may be further implemented as a multi-dimensionaluser behavior profile, where each user authentication 604 or identity628 factor associated with a facet may have a corresponding degree ofdimensional detail.

As an example, a biometric 606 user authentication factor 604 associatedwith a retinal scan may simply have the dimension of “match” or “notmatch,” which provides a low degree of dimensional detail. Conversely,its associated dimension information may include actual retinal patterncorrelation scores, which provides a higher degree of dimensionaldetail. As yet another example, a user identity 628 factor associatedwith a user gesture 624, such as keyboard cadence, may simply indicatewhether the user's keyboard usage is within an acceptable range ofrhythm and speed metrics, which provides a low degree of dimensionaldetail. In contrast, its associated dimensional information may includekey logger information related to which keys were struck, in whichorder, at which point in time, which provides a higher degree ofdimensional detail.

As yet another example, a user identity 628 factor associated withdate/time/frequency 620, such as when a particular file is accessed, maysimply indicate which date the file was accessed, but not the exact timeor how often. Alternatively, its associated dimensional information mayinclude exact times the file was accessed, which by extension mayindicated how frequently or infrequently the file was accessed during aparticular temporal interval. In this example, the lack of the exacttime or how often the file was accessed provides a low degree ofdimensional detail. Conversely, its provision provides a high degree ofdimensional detail, which may prove advantageous when assessing riskassociated with the user accessing the file.

In various embodiments, a user behavior profile may be implemented as amulti-layered user behavior profile. In certain embodiments, each layermay correspond to a certain level of detail such as a particular userauthentication 604 or identity 628 factor. In certain embodiments, thelevel of detail may correspond to a particular level of temporal detailcorresponding to a particular user authentication, identification orbehavior factor. As an example, one temporal detail layer of amulti-layered user behavior profile may correspond to a user identityfactor 628 associated with user interactions 618, described in greaterdetail herein, over a 30-day period. In this example, the various userinteractions 618 enacted during the 30-day period may be abstracted tosimply represent which user/device 630, user/network 642, user/resource648, and user/user 660 interactions took place, with their correspondingfrequency. Alternatively, another temporal detail layer may provide thedate/time/frequency 620 of each user interaction 618, not just duringthe 30-day period, but each 24 hour period therein. It will beappreciated that such a temporal level of detail related to suchinteractions may provide useful trend information, which in turn can beused advantageously when assessing security risk.

It will be appreciated that over time, the user behavior of a particularuser, such as user ‘A’ 602, will be uniquely different and distinct fromanother user, such as user ‘B’ 662. Accordingly, user behavior profile‘1’ will uniquely reflect the user behavior of user ‘1’, just as userbehavior profile ‘n’ will uniquely reflect the user behavior of user‘n’. As an example, user ‘A’ 602 may have a user role 614 of salesadministrator. Upon arriving at their office in the morning, the userconsistently checks their email, item by item, responding to each inturn, followed by processing expense reports for field sales personnel.Then, after lunch, the user may access and review sales forecasts on aninternal system 654. Furthermore, the user may exhibit sporadic keyboardentry interspersed with extensive mouse activity, or user gestures 624,when perusing the sales forecasts.

Moreover, personality type information associated with user ‘A’ 602 mayindicate the user consistently exhibits a positive, outgoing attitude.In this example, the sequence of the activities enacted by user ‘A’ 602throughout the day, and their frequency, correspond to thedate/time/frequency 620 user identity factor 628. Likewise, the keyboardcadence and other user gestures 624 are examples of granular useridentity factors 628, while the personality type information is anexample of an abstract user identity 628 factor.

As another example, user ‘B’ 662 may have a user role of financialcontroller. Upon arriving at their office in the morning, the userusually scans their email messages, responding only to those that areurgent. Then they check the daily budget status of each department tosee whether they are conforming to their respective guidelines. Afterlunch, the user may follow up on emails that are less urgent, followedby updating the organization's financials, likewise on an internalsystem 654. Additionally, the user may exhibit deliberate keyboard entryinterspersed with mouse activity, or user gestures 624, when updatingfinancial information. Moreover, personality type information associatedwith user ‘B’ 662 may indicate they consistently exhibit a reserved,introspective and contemplative attitude. As in the prior example, thesequence of the activities enacted by user ‘B’ 662 throughout the day,and their frequency, correspond to the date/time/frequency 620 useridentity 628 factor. Likewise, as before, the keyboard cadence and otheruser gestures 624 are examples of granular user identity factors 628,while the personality type information is an example of an abstract useridentity 628 factor.

It will likewise be appreciated that the user behavior of a particularuser may evolve over time. As an example, certain user behaviorexhibited by a user during the first month of assuming a new positionwithin an organization may be quite different than the user behaviorexhibited after being in the position for six months. To continue theexample, the user may be somewhat tentative when learning to access andinteract with unfamiliar resources 650 in the first month in theposition, but by the sixth month, such access and interaction iscommonplace and routine.

In certain embodiments, a user behavior profile associated with aparticular user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662, is used by theblockchain access management system 118 to compare the user's currentuser behavior to past user behavior. If the user's current user behaviormatches their past user behavior, then the blockchain access managementsystem 118 may determine that the user's user behavior is acceptable. Ifnot, then the blockchain access management system 118 may determine thatthe user's user behavior is anomalous or malicious. Accordingly, theblockchain access management system 118 may decide to performreconfiguration operations to change the reference (such as an addressor other type of unique identifier) of certain user profile informationstored in the repository of user behavior profile data 672 to prevent itbeing accessed by a blockchain associated with the user.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to perform reconfiguration operations to encrypt the userprofile information stored in the repository of user behavior profiledata 672 to prevent it being accessed by a blockchain or a block withina blockchain associated with the user. As an example, the address of theuser profile information stored in repository of user behavior profiledata 672 may not have been changed, but its encryption prevents theblockchain or the block within the blockchain from using it. In certainembodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to perform reconfiguration operations to use a differentencryption method to re-encrypt certain previously-encrypted userprofile information stored in the repository of user behavior profiledata 672 to prevent it being accessed by a blockchain associated withthe user. As an example, the address of the user profile informationstored in repository of user behavior profile data 672 may not have beenchanged, but its re-encryption prevents the blockchain from usingpreviously stored cryptographic keys or other information it may containfrom accessing it.

However, as described in greater detail herein, a change in a particularuser's user behavior over time may be neither anomalous nor malicious.Instead, it may be acceptable behavior that simply evolves over time asa natural result of day-to-day user/device 630, user/network 642,user/resource 648, or user/user 660 interactions. In certainembodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to determine whether such changes in a user's user behaviorover time are acceptable, anomalous, or malicious. In certainembodiments, a multi-faceted or multi-dimensional user behavior profilemay likewise be implemented in combination with a multi-layer userbehavior profile and the blockchain access management system 118 to makesuch determinations. In these embodiments, the method by which themulti-faceted, multi-dimensional, or multi-layered user behavior profileis implemented with the blockchain access management system 118 is amatter of design choice.

It will be appreciated that anomalous user behavior may includeinadvertent or compromised user behavior. For example, the user may haveinnocently miss-entered a request for data that is proprietary to anorganization. As another example, the user may be attempting to accessconfidential information as a result of being compromised. As yetanother example, a user may attempt to access certain proprietary datafrom their home, over a weekend, and late at night. In this example, theuser may be working from home on a project with an impending deadline.Accordingly, the attempt to access the proprietary data is legitimate,yet still anomalous as the attempt as it is unusual for the user toattempt to access the proprietary data. However, the user behavior maymanifest in context with consistent remote access patterns and providesufficient evidence to determine the nature of activity.

Likewise, the blockchain access management system 118 may determine thatthe observed behavior to be malicious. As yet another example, animpostor may be attempting to pose as a legitimate user in an attempt toexploit one or more resources 650. In this example, the attempt toexploit one or more resources 650 is malicious user behavior. As yetstill another example, a legitimate user may be attempting to increasetheir level of access to one or more resources 650. In this example, theuser's attempt to increase their level of access may indicate malicioususer behavior.

To further extend these examples, such resources may include variousfacilities 652, systems 654, data stores 656, or services 658. Invarious embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to block a user if it is determined their user behavior isanomalous or malicious. In certain embodiments, the blockchain accessmanagement system 118 may be implemented modify a request submitted by auser if it is determined the request is anomalous or malicious. Invarious embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to modify an outcome. For example, the blockchain accessmanagement system 118 may encrypt a file when a copy operation isdetected.

In certain embodiments, the user behavior profile may be implemented asa cyberprofile. A cyberprofile, as likewise used herein, broadly refersto a collection of information that uniquely distinguishes an entity andtheir associated behavior within cyberspace. As likewise used herein, anentity broadly refers to something that exists as itself, whetherphysically or abstractly. In certain embodiments, an entity may be anindividual user, a group, an organization, or a government. In certainembodiments, an entity may likewise be an item, a device, such asendpoint 304 and edge 202 devices, a network, such as an internal 644and external 646 networks, a domain, an operation, or a process. Incertain embodiments, an entity may be a resource 650, such as ageographical location or formation, a physical facility 652, a venue, asystem 654, a data store 656, or a service 658, such as a service 658operating in a cloud environment.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to process certain entity information associated withaccessing user profile information via a blockchain. As likewise usedherein, entity information broadly refers to information associated witha particular entity. In various embodiments, the entity information mayinclude certain types of content. In certain embodiments, such contentmay include text, unstructured data, structured data, graphical images,photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, biometric information,and so forth. In certain embodiments, the entity information may includemetadata. In various embodiments, the metadata may include entityattributes, which in turn may include certain entity identifier types orclassifications.

In various embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to use certain entity identifier information to ascertainthe identity of an associated entity at a particular point in time. Asused herein, entity identifier information broadly refers to aninformation element of an entity that can be used to ascertain orcorroborate the identity of an associated entity at a particular pointin time. In certain embodiments, the entity identifier information mayinclude user authentication factors 604, user identity factors 628,location data 636, information associated with various endpoint 304 andedge 202 devices, internal 644 and external 646 networks, resourceentities 650, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the user authentication factors 604 may includea user's biometrics 606, an associated security token 608, (e.g., adongle containing cryptographic keys), or a user identifier/password(ID/PW) 610. In certain embodiments, the user authentication factors 604may be used in combination to perform multi-factor authentication of auser, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662. As used herein, multi-factorauthentication broadly refers to approaches requiring two or moreauthentication factors. In general, multi-factor authentication includesthree classes of user authentication factors 604. The first is somethingthe user knows, such as a user ID/PW 610. The second is something theuser possesses, such as a security token 608. The third is somethingthat is inherent to the user, such as a biometric 606. In certainembodiments, user authentication operations may be performed by anassociated authentication system. In certain embodiments, userauthentication operations may continuously authenticate a user based ontheir user behaviors.

In certain embodiments, multi-factor authentication may be extended toinclude a fourth class of factors, which includes one or more useridentity factors 628. In these embodiments, the fourth class of factorsmay include user behavior elements the user has done, is currentlydoing, or is expected to do in the future. In certain embodiments,multi-factor authentication may be performed on recurring basis. Invarious embodiments, the multi-factor authentication may be performed atcertain time intervals during the enactment of a particular userbehavior. In certain embodiments, the time interval may be uniform. Incertain embodiments, the time interval may vary or be random. In certainembodiments, the multi-factor authentication may be performed accordingto the enactment of a particular user behavior, such as accessing adifferent resource 650. In various embodiments, certain combinations ofthe enhanced multi-factor authentication described herein may be usedaccording to the enactment of a particular user behavior. From theforegoing, those of skill in the art will recognize that the addition ofsuch a fourth class of factors not only strengthens current multi-factorauthentication approaches, but further, allows the factors to be moreuniquely associated with a given user.

In certain embodiments, the user identity factors 628 may include theuser's role 614 (e.g., title, position, responsibilities, etc.), theuser's access rights 616, the user's interactions 618, and thedate/time/frequency 620 of those interactions 618. In certainembodiments, the user identity factors 628 may likewise include theuser's location 622 when the interactions 618 are enacted, and thegestures 624 used to enact the interactions 618. In certain embodiments,the user gestures 624 may include key strokes on a keypad, a cursormovement, a mouse movement or click, a finger swipe, tap, or other handgesture, an eye movement, or some combination thereof. In certainembodiments, the user gestures 624 may likewise include the cadence ofthe user's keystrokes, the motion, force and duration of a hand orfinger gesture, the rapidity and direction of various eye movements, orsome combination thereof. In certain embodiments, the user gestures 624may include various audio or verbal commands performed by the user.

In certain embodiments, the user identity factors 628 may likewiseinclude personality type information, technical skill level information,financial information, location information, peer information, socialnetwork information, or a combination thereof. The user identity factors628 may likewise include various personal information 626, such asexpense account information, paid time off (PTO) information, dataanalysis information, personally sensitive information (PSI), personallyidentifiable information (PII), or a combination thereof. Likewise, theuser identity factors 628 may include insider information,misconfiguration information, third party information, or a combinationthereof.

In certain embodiments, the entity identifier information may includetemporal information. As used herein, temporal information broadlyrefers to a measure of time (e.g., a date, timestamp, etc.), a measureof an interval of time (e.g., a minute, hour, day, etc.), or a measureof an interval of time (e.g., between Jun. 3, 2017 and Mar. 4, 2018,etc.). In certain embodiments, the temporal information may beassociated with an event associated with a particular point in time. Asused herein, such a temporal event broadly refers to an occurrence,action or activity enacted by, or associated with, an entity at aparticular point in time.

Examples of such temporal events include making a phone call, sending atext or an email, using a device, such as an endpoint device 304,accessing a system 654, and entering a physical facility 652. Otherexamples of temporal events include uploading, transferring,downloading, modifying, or deleting data, such as data stored in adatastore 656, or accessing a service 658. Yet other examples oftemporal events include interactions between two or more users 660,interactions between a user and a device 630, interactions between auser and a network 642, and interactions between a user and a resource648, whether physical or otherwise. Yet still other examples of temporalevents include a change in name, address, physical location, occupation,position, role, marital status, gender, association, affiliation, orassignment.

As likewise used herein, temporal event information broadly refers totemporal information associated with a particular event. In variousembodiments, the temporal event information may include certain types ofcontent. In certain embodiments, such types of content may include text,unstructured data, structured data, graphical images, photographs, audiorecordings, video recordings, and so forth. In certain embodiments, theentity information may include metadata. In various embodiments, themetadata may include temporal event attributes, which in turn mayinclude certain entity identifier types or classifications, described ingreater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to use information associated with such temporalresolution of an entity's identity to assess the risk associated with aparticular entity, at a particular point in time, and adaptively respondwith an associated response. In certain embodiments, the blockchainaccess management system 118 may be implemented to respond to suchassessments in order to reduce operational overhead and improve systemefficiency while maintaining security integrity. In certain embodiments,the response to such assessments may be performed by a securityadministrator 668. Accordingly, certain embodiments of the invention maybe directed towards assessing the risk associated with the affirmativeresolution of the identity of an entity at a particular point in time incombination with its associated contextual information. Consequently,the blockchain access management system 118 may be more oriented invarious embodiments to risk adaptation than to security administration.

In certain embodiments, a cyberprofile may contain sensitive personalinformation 626 associated with a particular entity, such as a user. Asused herein, sensitive personal information (SPI), also commonlyreferred to as personally identifiable information (PII), broadly refersto any information usable to ascertain the identity of a user, either byitself, or in combination with other information, such as contextualinformation described in greater detail herein. Examples of SPI mayinclude the full or legal name of a user, initials or nicknames, placeand date of birth, home and business addresses, personal and businesstelephone numbers, their gender, and other genetic information.

Another aspect of SPI is any information associated with a particularindividual that is considered confidential. One example of suchconfidential information is protected health information (PHI). As usedherein, PHI broadly refers to any information associated with the healthstatus, provision of health care, or payment for health care that iscreated or collected by a “covered entity,” or an associate thereof,that can be linked to a particular individual. As used herein, a“covered entity” broadly refers to health plans, healthcareclearinghouses, healthcare providers, and others, who may electronicallycommunicate any health-related information associated with a particularindividual. Examples of such PHI may include any part of a patient'smedical record, healthcare record, or payment history for medical orhealthcare services.

Other examples of SPI may include national identification numbers, suchas a Social Security Number (SSN) or a passport number, vehicleregistration plate and serial numbers, and driver's license numbers.Additional examples of SPI may include user identifiers and passwords610, email addresses, social media identifiers, credit and debit cardnumbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), and other digitalidentity information. Yet other examples of SPI may include biometrics606, user access rights 616, personality type information, variousfinancial information, such as credit scores and financial transactions,personal correspondence, and other confidential information.

Skilled practitioners of the art will be aware of variousgovernment-mandated efforts to protect the privacy of SPI. One exampleof such a government-mandated effort is the General Data ProtectionRegulation (GPDR) for members of the European Union (EU). One aspect ofthe GPDR is various approaches to de-identifying SPI, includingpseudonymization and anonymization. In the context of the GDPR,pseudonymization is defined as “the processing of personal data in sucha manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to aspecific data subject (e.g., a user) without the use of additionalinformation, provided that such additional information is keptseparately and is subject to technical and organizational measures toensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified oridentifiable natural person.”

Various approaches to such de-identification includes removing orreplacing direct identifiers (e.g., names, phone numbers,government-issued identifiers, etc.) within a dataset, but may leave inplace data that may indirectly identify a person. These indirectidentifiers are often referred to a quasi-identifiers or indirectidentifiers. As used herein, anonymization broadly refers to the removalof any data within a data set that may directly, or indirectly, identifya user. In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system118 may be implemented to perform such pseudonymization or anonymizationof user profile information. In certain embodiments, thepseudonymization or anonymization of user profile information may beaccomplished by storing certain user profile information in a repositoryof user behavior profile data 672 at a particular address. In turn theaddress of the user profile information may be stored within a block ofa blockchain, as described in greater detail herein. In certainembodiments, the block of the blockchain, as likewise described ingreater detail herein, may be stored in a repository of blockchain data670. In certain embodiments, access to the user profile informationstored in the repository of user behavior profile data 672, or a portionthereof, may be disabled by changing its address.

Certain embodiments of the invention reflect an appreciation that aformerly-valid address stored in a blockchain block may become unusableif the actual address of the user profile information is changed. Incertain embodiments, the address of the user profile information may bechanged temporarily if a security breach is detected. Likewise, theoriginal address of the user profile information may be restored incertain embodiments if it was determined that the privacy of the userprofile information was not affected by the security breach. Certainembodiments of the invention reflect an appreciation that the userprofile information is effectively “erased” when its address is changed.

In certain embodiments, the security of particular user profileinformation can be maintained by performing reconfiguration operationsto change its address in the repository of user behavior profile data672. Certain aspects of the invention likewise reflect an appreciationthat a blockchain block may contain multiple addresses, each associatedwith a different set of user profile information. Accordingly, each setof user profile information can be individually secured, which in turnallows each to be temporarily “erased” by performing associatedreconfiguration operations to change their respective address. Likewise,reconfiguration operations may be performed to permanently delete eachset of user profile information if needed. Certain embodiments of theinvention reflect an appreciation that the use of multiple addresses mayprovide granular management of user profile information. Certainembodiments of the invention likewise reflect an appreciation thatperforming reconfiguration operations to delete user profile informationstored at a particular address effectively defeats the ability of ablockchain to access the user profile information regardless of how manyblockchains may contain the address.

Those of skill in the art will likewise be aware that it is not uncommonfor hackers, criminals and other actors to use various SPI toimpersonate a user in order to gain unauthorized access to varioussystems, data, or facilities. It is likewise not uncommon for suchindividuals to masquerade as a user in order to collect their associatedSPI for the purpose of identity theft. One known approach to gathering auser's SPI is to illicitly capture a data stream, such as a flow ofnetwork packets that include SPI sent by a user to another machine, suchas a particular external system 680. Defenses against such approachesinclude encrypting the data stream prior to being communicated across anetwork, such as the internal 644 or external 646 networks shown in FIG.6.

However, other approaches, such as the use of a key logger, maysurreptitiously capture the user's keystrokes or user gestures 624 andcommunicate the resulting data stream in their native form to a hackeror other infiltrator. Another issue is the possibility that anormally-trusted insider, such as a security administrator 668, may haveaccess to a decrypted data stream as part of their day-to-dayresponsibilities. As an example, a security administrator 668 may beusing a security analytics 512 system to perform a threat analysisrelated to a particular user. In the process, they may be exposed tovarious SPI associated with the user, such as certain user IDs andpasswords 610. It will be appreciated that such exposure creates theopportunity for a security breach, whether intended or not. Anotherapproach is to impersonate a legitimate website. In such approaches, theuser may navigate to the site and innocently enter their passwords, onlyto have them captured for later use in illegal activities.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to use information associated with certain user behaviorelements to manage blockchain access to user profile information. A userbehavior element, as used herein, broadly refers to a discrete elementof a user's behavior during the performance of a particular operation ina physical realm, cyberspace, or a combination thereof. In certainembodiments, such user behavior elements may be associated with auser/device 630, a user/network 642, a user/resource 648, a user/user660 interaction, or combination thereof.

As an example, user ‘A’ 602 may use an endpoint device 304 to browse aparticular web page on a news site on the Internet. In this example, theindividual actions performed by user ‘A’ 602 to access the web page areuser behavior elements that constitute a user behavior. As anotherexample, user ‘A’ 602 may use an endpoint device 304 to download a datafile from a particular system 654. In this example, the individualactions performed by user ‘A’ 602 to download the data file, includingthe use of one or more user authentication factors 604 for userauthentication, are user behavior elements that constitute a userbehavior. In certain embodiments, the user/device 630 interactions mayinclude an interaction between a user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662,and an endpoint device 304.

In certain embodiments, the user/device 630 interaction may includeinteraction with an endpoint device 304 that is not connected to anetwork at the time the interaction occurs. As an example, user ‘A’ 602or ‘B’ 662 may interact with an endpoint device 304 that is offline,using applications 632, accessing data 634, or a combination thereof, itmay contain. Those user/device 630 interactions, or their result, may bestored on the endpoint device 304 and then be accessed or retrieved at alater time once the endpoint device 304 is connected to the internal 644or external 646 networks.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint device 304 may be used tocommunicate data through the use of an internal network 644, an externalnetwork 646, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, theinternal 644 and the external 646 networks may include a public network,such as the Internet, a physical private network, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), or any combination thereof. In certain embodiments, theinternal 644 and external 646 networks may likewise include a wirelessnetwork, including a personal area network (PAN), based on technologiessuch as Bluetooth. In various embodiments, the wireless network mayinclude a wireless local area network (WLAN), based on variations of theIEEE 802.11 specification, commonly referred to as WiFi. In certainembodiments, the wireless network may include a wireless wide areanetwork (WWAN) based on an industry standard including various 3G, 4Gand 5G technologies.

In certain embodiments, the user/resource 648 interactions may includeinteractions with various resources 650. In certain embodiments, theresources 650 may include various facilities 652 and systems 654, eitherof which may be physical or virtual, as well as data stores 656 andservices 658. In certain embodiments, the user/user 660 interactions mayinclude interactions between two or more users, such as user ‘A’ 602 and‘B’ 662. In certain embodiments, the user/user interactions 660 may bephysical, such as a face-to-face meeting, via a user/device 630interaction, a user/network 642 interaction, a user/resource 648interaction, or some combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the user/user 660 interaction may include aface-to-face verbal exchange between two users. In certain embodiments,the user/user 660 interaction may include a written exchange, such astext written on a sheet of paper, between two users. In certainembodiments, the user/user 660 interaction may include a face-to-faceexchange of gestures, such as a sign language exchange, between twousers. In certain embodiments, temporal event information associatedwith various interactions 630, 642, 648, 660 may be collected and usedto manage blockchain access to user profile information.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to observe user behavior at one or more points ofobservation within a cyberspace environment. In certain embodiments, thepoints of observation may occur during various user interactions, suchas user/device 630, user/network 642, user/resource 648, and user/user660 interactions described in greater detail herein. As an example, auser/user 660 interaction may include an interaction between user ‘A’602 and ‘B’ 662.

In certain embodiments, the point of observation may include cyberbehavior of various kinds within an internal 644 network. As an example,the cyber behavior within an internal 644 network may include a useraccessing a particular internal system 654 or data store 656. In certainembodiments, the point of observation may include cyber behavior ofvarious kinds within an external 646 network. As an example, the cyberbehavior within an external 646 network may include a user's socialmedia activities or participation in certain user forums. Those of skillin the art will recognize that many such examples of user/device 630,user/network 642, user/resource 648, and user/user 660 interactions arepossible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit thespirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to process certain contextual information, to ascertainthe identity of an entity at a particular point in time. In certainembodiments, the contextual information may include location data 636.In certain embodiments, the endpoint device 304 may be configured toreceive such location data 636, which is used as a data source fordetermining the user's location 622.

In certain embodiments, the location data 636 may include GlobalPositioning System (GPS) data provided by a GPS satellite 638. Incertain embodiments, the location data 636 may include location data 636provided by a wireless network, such as from a cellular network tower640. In certain embodiments (not shown), the location data 636 mayinclude various Internet Protocol (IP) or other network addressinformation assigned to the endpoint 304 or edge 202 device. In certainembodiments (also not shown), the location data 636 may includerecognizable structures or physical addresses within a digital image orvideo recording.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint devices 304 may include an inputdevice (not shown), such as a keypad, magnetic card reader, tokeninterface, biometric sensor, digital camera, video surveillance camera,and so forth. In certain embodiments, such endpoint devices 304 may bedirectly, or indirectly, connected to a particular facility 652 orsystem 654. As an example, the endpoint device 304 may be directlyconnected to an ingress/egress system, such as an electronic lock on adoor or an access gate of a parking garage. As another example, theendpoint device 304 may be indirectly connected to a physical securitymechanism through a dedicated security network.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented as a stand-alone system. In certain embodiments, theblockchain access management system 118 may be implemented as adistributed system. In certain embodiment, the blockchain accessmanagement system 118 may be implemented as a virtual system, such as aninstantiation of one or more virtual machines (VMs). In certainembodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented as a blockchain access management service 664. In certainembodiments, the blockchain access management service 664 may beimplemented in a cloud environment familiar to those of skill in theart. Those of skill in the art will recognize that many such embodimentsare possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit thespirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, transportable cyberprofile management operationsare initiated by ongoing operations being performed to monitor cyberbehavior for abnormal events, such as a data breach or a cyberprofilebeing compromised. If an abnormal event is detected, then threatanalysis operations are performed to determine whether the abnormalevent represents a threat to a particular cyberprofile. If so, thencyberprofile elements associated with the affected cyberprofile areidentified in a repository of user behavior profile data 672.

Once identified, addresses referencing the storage location of theassociated cyberprofile elements stored in a repository of user behaviorprofile data 672 are changed, followed by information related to theabnormal event, and the changed address of the cyberprofile elements,being logged. In certain embodiments, the changing of the address of thecyberprofile elements, and the logging of the information related to theabnormal event, may be performed by the blockchain access managementsystem 118.

The cyberprofile is then processed to reflect that the address of itsassociated cyberprofile elements has been changed. Associated threatremediation operations are then performed. In certain embodiments, thethreat remediation operations may be performed by a securityadministrator 668. In these embodiments, the selection of theremediation operations to be performed, and the method by which they areperformed, is a matter of design choice.

FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a cyberprofile implemented inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention as a blockchain. As usedherein, a blockchain broadly refers to a data structure that istamper-evident and appendable. In certain embodiments, a blockchain mayfurther refer to a decentralized, distributed data structure whosecontents are replicated across a number of systems. These contents arestored in a chain of fixed structures commonly referred to as “blocks,”such as cyberprofile blocks ‘1’ 710, ‘2’ 712, and so forth, through ‘n’714. Each of these blocks typically contains certain information aboutitself, such as a unique identifier, a reference to its previous block,and a hash value generated from the data it contains. As an example,cyberprofile block ‘2’ 712 would contain a reference to cyberprofileblock ‘1 710, yet their respective hashes values would be different asthey contain different data.

Those of skill in the art will be aware that blockchains may beimplemented in different ways and for different purposes. However, thesedifferent implementations typically have certain common characteristics.For example, in certain instantiations, blockchains are generallydistributed across various systems, each of which maintains a copy ofthe blockchain. Updates to one copy of the blockchain, such as theaddition of a cyberprofile block ‘n’ 714, results in correspondingupdates to the other copies. Accordingly, the contents of theblockchain, including its most recent updates, are available to allparticipating users of the blockchain, who in turn use their own systemsto authenticate and verify each new block. This process ofauthentication and verification ensures that the same transaction doesnot occur more than once. Furthermore, with distributed types of blockchains, the legitimacy of a given block, and its associated contents, isonly certified once a majority of participants agree to its validity.

In general, the distributed and replicated nature of a blockchain, suchas a cyberprofile blockchain 708, makes it difficult to modifyhistorical records without invalidating any subsequent blocks addedthereafter. Consequently, the user behavior data within a givencyberprofile blockchain 708 is essentially immutable and tamper-evident.However, this immutability and tamper-evidence does not necessarilyensure that the user behavior data recorded in the cyberprofileblockchain 708 can be accepted as an incontrovertible truth. Instead, itsimply means that what was originally recorded was agreed upon by amajority of the cyberprofile blockchain's 708 participants.

Certain embodiments of the invention reflect an appreciation that everytransaction in a blockchain is serialized (i.e., stored in a sequence).Additionally, in certain embodiments, every transaction in a blockchainis time-stamped, which is useful for tracking interactions betweenparticipants and verifying various information contained in, or relatedto, a particular blockchain. Furthermore, instructions may be embeddedwithin individual blocks of a blockchain. These instructions, in theform of computer-executable code, allow transactions or other operationsto be initiated if certain conditions are met.

Certain embodiments of the invention likewise reflect an appreciationthat while blockchains are typically implemented as a decentralized,distributed data structure whose contents are replicated across a numberof systems, they may also be implemented in other ways. Accordingly, thecyberprofile blockchain 708 may be implemented in certain embodiments tobe stored as a single instance on a system, whether physical or virtual,at a single address. In certain embodiments, individual cyberprofileblocks ‘1’ 710, ‘2’ 712 through ‘n’ 714 may be centrally stored atdifferent addresses on the same system. In certain embodiments, a singleinstance of cyberprofile blocks ‘1’ 710, ‘2’ 712, through ‘n’ 714 may bestored individually on two or more systems, each with a corresponding,unique address.

In certain embodiments, individual cyberprofile blockchains 708associated with a given cyberprofile 706 may be stored at a singleaddress on a system. In certain embodiments, individual cyberprofileblockchains 708 associated with a given cyberprofile 706 may be storedindividually on two or more systems, each with a corresponding, uniqueaddress. In certain embodiments, individual cyberprofile blockchains 708associated with a given cyberprofile 706 may be stored on two or moresystems, each with a corresponding, unique address. Those of skill inthe art will recognize that many such embodiments are possible.Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit the spirit, scope orintent of the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 7, groups of user behavior elements 702, describedin greater detail herein, may be combined in various embodiments togenerate one or more associated cyberprofile elements 704, likewisedescribed in greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, theresulting cyberprofile elements 704 may in turn be combined to generatea cyberprofile block, such as cyberprofile block ‘n’ 714. As usedherein, a cyberprofile block broadly refers to a blockchain blockimplemented to contain various cyberprofile information. As likewiseused herein, cyberprofile information broadly refers to any entityinformation, entity identifier information, behavior elementinformation, temporal information, contextual information, orcombination thereof, associated with a cyberprofile, as described ingreater detail herein. The resulting cyberprofile block is then appendedto a target cyberprofile blockchain 708. In certain embodiments, thecyberprofile blockchain 708, or a portion thereof, may be implemented asa cyberprofile 706. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile 706 may beimplemented to contain cyberprofile information not contained in thecyberprofile blockchain 708.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile blockchain 708 may beimplemented to be associated with an individual entity. In theseembodiments, user behavior blocks ‘1’ 710 and ‘2’ 712 through ‘n’ 714are associated with the individual entity. In certain embodiments, thecyberprofile blockchain 708 may be implemented to be associated with twoor more entities. In these embodiments, individual user behavior blocks‘1’ 710 and ‘2’ 712 through ‘n’ 714 may be respectively associated withtwo or more cyberprofiles 806, which in turn are respectively associatedwith a particular entity. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofileblockchain 708 may be parsed to identify which of the cyberprofileblocks ‘1’ 710 and ‘2’ 712 through ‘n’ 714 are associated with a givencyberprofile 706, which in turn is respectively associated with aparticular entity.

In certain embodiments, data associated with a given cyberprofileblockchain 808 may be used in the performance of user behaviormonitoring operations to detect acceptable, anomalous, malicious andunknown behavior enacted by a user. In certain embodiments, theperformance of these user behavior monitoring operations may involvecomparing a newly-generated cyberprofile block, such as cyberprofileblock ‘n’ 714 to previously-generated user behavior blocks, such ascyberprofile blocks ‘1’ 710 and ‘2’ 712.

In certain embodiments, if the contents of the cyberprofile block ‘n’714 are substantively similar to the contents of cyberprofile blocks ‘1’710 and ‘2’ 712, then the behavior of the user may be judged to beacceptable. However, if the contents of the cyberprofile block ‘n’ 714are substantively dissimilar to the contents of cyberprofile blocks ‘1’710 and ‘2’ 712, then the behavior of the user may be judged to beanomalous, malicious or unknown. In these embodiments, the method bywhich the contents of cyberprofile block ‘n’ 714 are determined to besubstantively similar, or dissimilar, to the contents of cyberprofileblocks ‘1’ 710 and ‘2’ 712 is a matter of design choice.

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a cyberprofile block in ablockchain implemented in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. In certain embodiments, a cyberprofile blockchain 708, asshown in FIG. 7, may contain one or more user cyberprofile blocks 802,such as cyberprofile blocks ‘1’ 710, ‘2’ 712, through ‘n’ 714, likewiseshown in FIG. 7. In these embodiments, each cyberprofile block 802 mayinclude either data, metadata or both, such as a block referenceidentifier (ID) 804, a hash value of the prior cyberprofile block'sheader 806 information, the public key of the recipient 808 of thecyberprofile blockchain transaction, and the digital signature of theoriginator 810 of the cyberprofile blockchain transaction. Thecyberprofile block 802 may likewise include additional, data, metadata,or both, such as a cyberprofile blockchain transaction identifier 812, atransaction payload 814, and a transaction timestamp 816.

In certain embodiments, the transaction payload 814 may include one ormore cyberprofile components 818. In certain embodiments, thecyberprofile components 818 may include various cyberprofile elements824, described in greater detail herein, and a hash 822 value of thecyberprofile elements 824. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofileelements 824 may likewise include associated user behavior elements, intheir entirety or a portion thereof. In certain embodiments, thecyberprofile element hash 822 value is implemented to determine whetherthe integrity of the cyberprofile elements 824 has been compromised.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile components 818 may not includethe cyberprofile elements 824. Instead, the cyberprofile elements 824may be stored in a different location, such as a remote system. Incertain embodiments, the remote system may include a repository of userbehavior profile data, within which the cyberprofile elements arestored. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile elements 824 may bestored in the form of one or more cyberprofile blocks 802 at thedifferent location. In certain embodiments, the one or more cyberprofileblocks 802 may be stored in the form of a cyberprofile blockchain at thedifferent location.

In certain embodiments, the location of the cyberprofile elements 824may be referenced by an address 826. In certain embodiments, the address826 may be a network address, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address.In certain embodiments, the address 826 may be a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) address. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile elements824 may be contained in the cyberprofile components 818 as well asstored in a different location at a particular address. In certainembodiments, the cyberprofile element hash 822 value may include thecomputed hash of the cyberprofile elements 824 and the address of thelocation where they are stored.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile components 818 may includeexecutable code 828. In certain embodiments, the executable code 828 maybe implemented to access the cyberprofile elements 824 stored in adifferent location. In certain embodiments, the executable code 828 maybe implemented to access a cyberprofile blockchain associated with thecyberprofile elements 824, regardless of where they may be stored. Incertain embodiments, the executable code 828 may be used by a blockchainmanagement access system, described in greater detail herein, to detectacceptable, anomalous, malicious and unknown behavior being enacted by auser. In certain embodiments, user behavior data contained in one ormore cyberprofile elements 824 may be used in combination with theexecutable code 828 to perform user behavior monitoring operations,likewise described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the executable code 828 may include stateinformation such as pre-calculated information associated with one ormore cyberprofile elements 824. In certain embodiments, the executablecode 824 may include a model of good behavior which is used whendetecting acceptable, anomalous, malicious and unknown behavior beingenacted by a user. In certain embodiments, the model may include aseries of rules of behaviors that might lead to a determinationregarding trustworthiness. In certain embodiments, the series of rulesmay include communication related rules, data movement related rulesand/or programming modification type rules. In certain embodiments, sucha model may enable the blockchain access management system to assess anintent of a user.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile components 818 may also containa risk 820 score. In certain embodiments, the risk 820 score may be usedby a blockchain access management system to assess the state (e.g., therisk or trustworthiness) of a particular user while enacting a givenuser behavior. In certain embodiments, the state may also be storedwithin the cyberprofile block 802. In certain embodiments, the state isassessed at a specific time and has a timestamp or other temporalinformation associated with the state. In one embodiment, the user risk820 score might be associated with a particular user behavior element,such as accessing sensitive human resource documents. In one embodiment,the risk 820 score might be related to a user's overall user behavior.In various embodiments, the cyberprofile block 802 may also containinformation regarding how the risk 820 score was generated, such as themodel that was used. Certain embodiments of the invention reflect anappreciation that the storing of this information assists in providing ahistorical view of how the risk 820 score was generated when it wasgenerated. Certain embodiments of the invention likewise reflect anappreciation that this information can be useful in identifying whattype of user behavior led to the risk 820 score (e.g., what was theanomaly).

As an example, a user may have a low risk 820 score for generalcyberspace activity, but a high risk 820 score for accessing anorganization's financial data. To continue the example, the user's rolein the organization may be related to maintaining a physical facility.In that role, the user may requisition cleaning supplies and scheduleother users to perform maintenance. Accordingly, attempting to accessthe organization's financial data, particularly over a weekend, wouldindicate anomalous, or possibly malicious, behavior. To continue theexample, such an attempt may result in a high risk 820 score beingassigned to that particular user behavior element. In certainembodiments, the risk 820 score may change as a result of informationobtained from a third party and not just from observable behavior. Forexample, a user's credit score changes, or the user performs a wiretransfer to a known suspicious location, then the risk 820 score mayadjusted accordingly.

In certain embodiments, the executable code 828 may be implemented tosubmit a request to the blockchain access management system to changethe address 826 where the cyberprofile elements 824 may be stored. As anexample, a user's cyberprofile may have become compromised. In thisexample, the blockchain access management system may likewise change theaddress of where the cyberprofile elements 824 are stored to preventunauthorized access by the compromised cyberprofile. Those of skill inthe art will recognize that many such embodiments and examples arepossible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit thespirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a transportable cyberprofileimplemented in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. As usedherein, a transportable cyberprofile broadly refers to a cyberprofileimplemented as a cyberprofile blockchain, or portion thereof, that is inturn implemented such that the addresses respectively associated withits corresponding cyberprofile blocks, or their associated cyberprofileelements, can be reassigned. As an example, a cyberprofile block, suchas the cyberprofile block 802 shown in FIG. 8, may have been implementedsuch that its associated cyberprofile elements 824 have been stored at adifferent location, referenced by an address 826.

In this example, the integrity of the cyberprofile associated with thecyberprofile block 802 may have been compromised. Accordingly, ablockchain access management system may be implemented to change thestorage location of the cyberprofile block 802, or its associatedcyberprofile elements 824, to an address that is different than theaddress 826 stored in the cyberprofile components 818. Consequently thenew storage location of the cyberprofile block 802, or its associatedcyberprofile elements 824, is no longer referenced by the address 826stored in the cyberprofile components 818. From the foregoing, it willbe appreciated that changing the address of the cyberprofile block 802,or its associated cyberprofile elements 824, will likely limit thedegree to which the associated cyberprofile may be compromised.

In certain embodiments, a transportable cyberprofile associated with aparticular user 902 may have one or more associated cyberprofileblockchains, or portions thereof, stored at address ‘1’ 904 on system‘1’ 906. In certain embodiments, address ‘1’ 904 may be referenced as anaddress contained within a corresponding cyberprofile block, such as theaddress 826 in the cyberprofile block 802 shown in FIG. 8. In certainembodiments, as described in greater detail herein, one or morecyberprofile blockchains, or portions thereof, may be associated with aparticular transportable cyberprofile.

In certain embodiments, the one or more cyberprofile blockchains, orportions thereof, may be stored at address ‘1’ 904 on system ‘1’ 906. Incertain embodiments, as likewise described in greater detail herein, theone or more cyberprofile blockchains, or portions thereof, stored ataddress ‘1’ 904 on system ‘1’ 906 may be assigned a new address ‘n’ 906on system ‘1’ 908. In certain embodiments, the one or more associatedcyberprofile blockchains, or portions thereof, stored at address ‘1’ 904on system ‘1’ 906 may be assigned a new address ‘x’ 910 on system ‘x’912.

In certain embodiments, the one or more associated cyberprofileblockchains, or portions thereof, stored at address ‘1’ 904 on system‘1’ 906 may individually be assigned a new address ‘n’ 908 on system ‘1’908 or a new address ‘x’ 910 on system ‘x’ 912. In these embodiments,the method by which the individual cyberprofile blockchains, or portionsthereof, are selected to be assigned a new address ‘n’ 906 on system ‘1’908, or a new address ‘x’ 910 on system ‘x’ 912, is a matter of designchoice. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize that many suchembodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended tolimit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of the operation of a blockchainaccess management system implemented in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention for managing access to a transportable cyberprofile. Invarious embodiments, a blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to manage blockchain access to cyberprofile information. Incertain embodiments, user behavior associated with a user 1102 may bemonitored.

In certain embodiments, the user behavior may be monitored duringuser/device interactions 630 between the user 1002 and an endpointdevice 304. In certain embodiments, as described in greater detailherein, an endpoint agent 306 may be implemented on the endpoint device304 to perform the user behavior monitoring. In certain embodiments, acyberprofile management system 1080 may be implemented in combinationwith a blockchain access management system 118 to perform the userbehavior monitoring, or to manage blockchain access to cyberprofileinformation, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 306 may be implemented toinclude an event analytics 310 module and a blockchain pluggable featurepack 1008. In certain embodiments, the blockchain pluggable feature pack1008 may be further implemented to include a data stream collector 1010module, a user behavior element detector 1012 module, and a cyberprofileelement management 1014 module. In certain embodiments, the data streamcollector 1010 module may be implemented to capture data streamsresulting from user/device interactions 630 between a user 1002 and acorresponding endpoint device 304. In certain embodiments, the datastream collector 1010 module may be implemented to capture data streamsresulting to user/network interactions 642 between an endpoint device304 and an edge device 202. In certain embodiments, certain user/networkinteractions 642 may be associated with certain user/device interactions630.

In certain embodiments, the user behavior detector 1012 module may beimplemented to identify various user behavior elements in the resultingdata streams, which may then be provided to the cyberprofile elementmanagement 1014 module. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile elementmanagement 1014 module may be implemented to process the resulting userbehavior elements into cyberprofile elements, described in greaterdetail herein. In turn, the cyberprofile element management 1014 modulemay be implemented in certain embodiments to provide the resultingcyberprofile elements to the blockchain access management service 118.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile elements received by theblockchain access management service 118 may be provided to thecyberprofile management system 1080 for processing. In certainembodiments, the cyberprofile management system 1080 may be implementedto include a cyberprofile element collector 1082 module, a cyberprofileblockchain generator 1084 module, and a cyberprofile address management1086 module. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile elements providedby the blockchain access management system 118 may be received by thecyberprofile element collector 1082 and then provided to thecyberprofile blockchain generator 1084 module.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile blockchain generator 1084module may be implemented to process the cyberprofile elements, andother associated information, to generate cyberprofile blocks, describedin greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofileblockchain generator 1184 module may be implemented to process theresulting cyberprofile blocks to generate a corresponding cyberprofileblockchain, likewise described in greater detail herein. In certainembodiments, the cyberprofile blockchain generator 1084 may likewise beimplemented to process the cyberprofile blockchain to associate it witha particular cyberprofile. In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile maylikewise be associated with other cyberprofile blockchains, otherassociated information, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the cyberprofile blockchain generator 1084 maybe implemented to provide a particular cyberprofile block generated bythe cyberprofile blockchain generator 1084 module to the cyberprofileaddress management 1086 module for additional processing. In certainembodiments, the cyberprofile address management 1086 module may beimplemented to process the cyberprofile block to extract its associatedcyberprofile elements and store them at a particular address in arepository of user behavior profile data 672. In certain embodiments,the cyberprofile address management 1086 module may be implemented tofurther process the cyberprofile block to insert the addresscorresponding to the location of the cyberprofile elements as acyberprofile component, as described in the text associated with FIG. 8.

In certain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 maybe implemented to use cryptographic approaches known to those of skillin the art to encrypt cyberprofile elements stored at their respectiveaddresses in the repository of user behavior profile data 672. Incertain embodiments, the blockchain access management system 118 may beimplemented to receive information that various cyberprofile informationassociated with a particular user 1002 may be compromised or have thepotential of being compromised. Accordingly, the blockchain accessmanagement system 118 may be implemented in certain embodiments tosubmit a request to the cyberprofile management system 1080 to changethe respective address ‘1’ 672 through ‘n’ 674 of certain cyberprofileelements that may be associated with the compromised cyberprofileinformation. In certain embodiments, the compromised cyberprofileinformation may include a particular cyberprofile element, acyberprofile blockchain, or a cyberprofile in its entirety.

FIG. 11 is a generalized flowchart of cyberprofile element generationoperations performed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.In this embodiment, cyberprofile element generation operations are begunin step 1102, followed by the selection of a user in step 1104 forassociated cyberprofile block generation. An unpopulated cyberprofileelement for the selected user is then initiated in step 1106, followedby the performance of ongoing monitoring operations being performed instep 1108 to detect user behavior elements associated with the selecteduser's cyber behavior.

A determination is then made in step 1110 whether a user behaviorelement has been detected. If not, then a determination is made in step1120 whether to continue monitoring the user's cyber behavior to detectassociated behavior elements. If so, then the process is continued,proceeding with step 1108. Otherwise, cyberprofile element generationoperations are ended in step 1122. However, if it was determined in step1110 that a user behavior element was detected, then the detected userbehavior element is added to the previously-generated cyberprofileelement in step 1112.

A determination is then made in step 1114 whether to generate apopulated cyberprofile element from any associated user behaviorelements. If not, then the process is continued, proceeding with step1120. Otherwise, a populated cyberprofile element is generated from itsassociated user behavior elements in step 1116. The resulting populatedcyberprofile element is then provided in step 1118 to a blockchainaccess management system for further processing, as described in greaterdetail herein. Thereafter, of if it was determined in step 1114 to notgenerate a populated cyberprofile element, the process is continued,proceeding with step 1120.

FIGS. 12a and 12b are a generalized flowchart of the performance oftransportable cyberprofile generation operations implemented inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment,transportable cyberprofile generation operations are begun in step 1202,followed by ongoing operations being performed by a blockchain accessmanagement system in step 1204 to receive cyberprofile elements, asdescribed in greater detail herein. A determination is then made in step1206 whether a cyberprofile element has been received by the blockchainaccess management system.

If not, then a determination is made in step 1228 to determine whetherto continue ongoing operations to receive cyberprofile elements. If so,then the process is continued, proceeding with step 1204. Otherwise, adetermination is made in step 1230 whether to end transportablecyberprofile generation operations. If not, then the process iscontinued, proceeding with step 1204. Otherwise, transportablecyberprofile generation operations are ended in step 1232.

However, if it was determined in step 1206 that a cyberprofile elementwas received, then it is processed in step 1208 to determine itsassociated entity. A determination is then made in step 1210 todetermine whether other cyberprofile elements associated with the sameentity have been received by the blockchain access management system. Ifso, then the most recently received cyberprofile element is associatedwith the other cyberprofile elements corresponding to the same entity instep 1212.

Thereafter, or if it was determined in step 1210 that no othercyberprofile elements corresponding to the entity have been received,then a determination is made in step 1214 whether to generate acyberprofile block, described in greater detail herein. If not, then theprocess is continued, proceeding with step 1228. Otherwise, thecyberprofile elements corresponding to the same entity are processed instep 1216 with any other related cyberprofile information, likewisedescribed in greater detail herein, to generate a cyberprofile block.

Then, in step 1218, the cyberprofile elements associated with theresulting cyberprofile block are stored in a repository of user behaviorprofile data at a selected address. The selected address for thecyberprofile elements are then cross-referenced, or otherwise indexed,to the cyberprofile block's identifier in step 1220. The cyberprofileelements are then processed in step 1222 with their correspondingaddress to generate an element hash value, described in greater detailherein. The resulting element hash value, and the address of the storedcyberprofile elements, are then stored in the cyberprofile block in step1224. The cyberprofile block is then processed in step 1226 to associateit with its corresponding transportable cyberprofile. The process isthen continued, proceeding with step 1230.

FIG. 13 is a generalized flowchart of the performance of transportablecyberprofile management operations implemented in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, transportablecyberprofile management operations are begun in step 1302, followed byongoing operations being performed in step 1304 to monitor cyberbehavior for abnormal events, such as a data breach or a cyberprofilebeing compromised. A determination is then made in step 1306 whether anabnormal event has been detected. If not, then a determination is madein step 1322 whether to continue ongoing operations to monitor cyberbehavior for abnormal events. If so, then the process is continued,proceeding with step 1304.

However, if it was determined in step 1306 that an abnormal event wasdetected, then threat analysis operations are performed in step 1308,followed by a determination being made in step 1310 if the abnormalevent represents a threat to a particular cyberprofile. If not, then theprocess is continued, proceeding with step 1322. Otherwise, cyberprofileelements associated with the affected cyberprofile are identified instep 1312. The address referencing the storage location of theassociated cyberprofile elements are then changed in step 1314, followedby information related to the abnormal event, and the changed address ofthe cyberprofile elements, being logged in step 1316. In certainembodiments, the changing of the address of the cyberprofile elements,and the logging of the information related to the abnormal event, may beperformed by a blockchain access management system, described in greaterdetail herein. The cyberprofile is then processed in step 1318 toreflect that the address of its associated cyberprofile elements hasbeen changed. Threat remediation operations are then performed in step1320 and the process is continued, proceeding with step 1322.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present inventionmay be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product.Accordingly, embodiments of the invention may be implemented entirely inhardware, entirely in software (including firmware, resident software,micro-code, etc.) or in an embodiment combining software and hardware.These various embodiments may all generally be referred to herein as a“circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention maytake the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storagemedium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.

Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may beutilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, forexample, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, ordevice. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable medium would include the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), anoptical storage device, or a magnetic storage device. In the context ofthis document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be anymedium that can contain, store, communicate, or transport the programfor use by or in connection with the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be written in an object oriented programming language suchas Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program codefor carrying out operations of the present invention may also be writtenin conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The program codemay execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Embodiments of the invention are described with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce amachine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor ofthe computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, createmeans for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchartand/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that,based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be madewithout departing from this invention and its broader aspects.Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope allsuch changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scopeof this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that theinvention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will beunderstood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number ofan introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitlyrecited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no suchlimitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimelements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element,even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more”or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the sameholds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

The present invention is well adapted to attain the advantages mentionedas well as others inherent therein. While the present invention has beendepicted, described, and is defined by reference to particularembodiments of the invention, such references do not imply a limitationon the invention, and no such limitation is to be inferred. Theinvention is capable of considerable modification, alteration, andequivalents in form and function, as will occur to those ordinarilyskilled in the pertinent arts. The depicted and described embodimentsare examples only, and are not exhaustive of the scope of the invention.

Consequently, the invention is intended to be limited only by the spiritand scope of the appended claims, giving full cognizance to equivalentsin all respects.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implementable method for generating acyber behavior profile, comprising: monitoring electronically-observableuser behavior, the electronically-observable user behavior comprising abehavior exhibited by a user that is observed through the use of atleast one of an electronic device, a computer system and a softwareapplication executing on the computing system; converting theelectronically-observable user behavior user into electronic informationrepresenting the user interactions; generating a user behavior profilebased upon the electronic information representing theelectronically-observable user behavior; storing information relating tothe user behavior profile within a user behavior profile repository;and, storing information referencing the user behavior profile in a userbehavior distributed transaction database so as to allow the userbehavior profile to be accessed via using the information referencingthe user behavior profile, the information referencing the user behaviorprofile comprising an address for referencing the user behavior profilewithin the user behavior profile repository; and, reconfiguring the userbehavior profile stored within the user behavior repository such thatthe address for referencing the user behavior profile no longer providesaccess to the user behavior profile.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: reconfiguring the user behavior profile stored within theuser behavior repository such that the information referencing the userbehavior profile no longer provides access to the user behavior profile.3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the user behavior profile is basedupon at least one of an authentication factor and a user identityfactor.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein: the information referencingthe user behavior profile is stored within a user profile block of theuser behavior distributed transaction database.
 5. The method of claim4, wherein: the user profile block comprises a transaction payload; and,the transaction payload includes the address for referencing the userbehavior profile within the user behavior profile repository.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, wherein: the transaction payload comprises executablecode, the executable code enabling access to the user behavior profile.7. A system comprising: a processor; a data bus coupled to theprocessor; and a non-transitory, computer-readable storage mediumembodying computer program code, the non-transitory, computer-readablestorage medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program codeinteracting with a plurality of computer operations and comprisinginstructions executable by the processor and configured for: monitoringelectronically-observable user behavior, the electronically-observableuser behavior comprising a behavior exhibited by a user that is observedthrough the use of at least one of an electronic device, a computersystem and a software application executing on the computing system;converting the electronically-observable user behavior user intoelectronic information representing the user interactions; generating auser behavior profile based upon the electronic information representingthe electronically-observable user behavior; storing informationrelating to the user behavior profile within a user behavior profilerepository; and, storing information referencing the user behaviorprofile in a user behavior distributed transaction database so as toallow the user behavior profile to be accessed via using the informationreferencing the user behavior profile, the information referencing theuser behavior profile comprising an address for referencing the userbehavior profile within the user behavior profile repository; and,reconfiguring the user behavior profile stored within the user behaviorrepository such that the address for referencing the user behaviorprofile no longer provides access to the user behavior profile.
 8. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein: reconfiguring the user behavior profilestored within the user behavior repository such that the informationreferencing the user behavior profile no longer provides access to theuser behavior profile.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein: the userbehavior profile is based upon at least one of an authentication factorand a user identity factor.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein: theinformation referencing the unique cyber behavior profile is storedwithin a user profile block of the user behavior distributed transactiondatabase.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein: the user profile blockcomprises a transaction payload; and, the transaction payload includesthe address for referencing the user behavior profile within the userbehavior profile repository.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein: thetransaction payload comprises executable code, the executable codeenabling access to the user behavior profile.
 13. A non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, thecomputer program code comprising computer executable instructionsconfigured for: monitoring electronically-observable user behavior, theelectronically-observable user behavior comprising a behavior exhibitedby a user that is observed through the use of at least one of anelectronic device, a computer system and a software applicationexecuting on the computing system; converting theelectronically-observable user behavior user into electronic informationrepresenting the user interactions; generating a user behavior profilebased upon the electronic information representing theelectronically-observable user behavior; storing information relating tothe user behavior profile within a user behavior profile repository;and, storing information referencing the user behavior profile in a userbehavior distributed transaction database so as to allow the userbehavior profile to be accessed via using the information referencingthe user behavior profile, the information referencing the user behaviorprofile comprising an address for referencing the user behavior profilewithin the user behavior profile repository; and, reconfiguring the userbehavior profile stored within the user behavior repository such thatthe address for referencing the user behavior profile no longer providesaccess to the user behavior profile.
 14. The non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: reconfiguring theuser behavior profile stored within the user behavior repository suchthat the information referencing the user behavior profile no longerprovides access to the user behavior profile.
 15. The non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein: the user behaviorprofile is based upon at least one of an authentication factor and auser identity factor.
 16. The non-transitory, computer-readable storagemedium of claim 14, wherein: the information referencing the uniquecyber behavior profile is stored within a user profile block of the userbehavior distributed transaction database.
 17. The non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein: the user profileblock comprises a transaction payload; and, the transaction payloadincludes the address for referencing the user behavior profile withinthe user behavior profile repository.
 18. The non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein: the transactionpayload comprises executable code, the executable code enabling accessto the user behavior profile.
 19. The non-transitory, computer-readablestorage medium of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructionsare deployable to a client system from a server system at a remotelocation.
 20. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are provided by aservice provider to a user on an on-demand basis.